The Future of Legions - Part One

Slow and boring gameplay, oversized maps, mandatory vehicles... why does this sound familiar? Bah, I must have had another alcohol induced hallucination about such a game from over a decade ago. I remember the title refrencing small groups of people living in primitive societies... Settlers or something? Whatever, I know it had a 'T' in there somewhere. And a 2. I'm sure it'll come to me in due time.

I can imagine that if the maps are large enough and the game mode is CnH or something along those lines where it is in fact more expedient to transport several players at once in a vehicle then vehicles could add another level of depth to the game. I certainly wouldn't want to see them on smaller maps but to simply write them off completely is a little short-sighted.

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You really have to realize how large that map would have to be. Even Planetside2's entire world map is only a few times the size of Blade Run. On a map that large, good map design would result in hi-speed trenches, not too different from Forgotten. Of course, given how everyone "loved" Forgotten, it would probably be even better design-wise to just make a smaller map. Now, if we pretend that Legions II were to have some component of MMOFPS akin to PS2, then vehicles as they are conventionally known might have a use. Consider though that the map would have to be many times the size of BR. The largest maps on Halo for instance in MP are probably just a few hundred meters in a given direction. PS2's world is tens of kilometers in a direction. The reason that gives a sensation of scale is in large part because of your movement speed (or lack thereof). You are an ordinary human in that game, more or less. In Legions you were presumably in the elite corps of a collapsing empire where you have the equipment that makes you a vehicle.

Consider what vehicles have in other games: speed, unification (they can drop multiple people off at once), armor, and firepower. Legions already has those things and if you want unification, just go in groups. To improve upon the speed of Legions would mean that really any vehicle would have to be supersonic or it would be useless (but map design to allow players to hit sonic speeds would negate this). In regards firepower and corresponding armor, you carry a chaingun and a rocket launcher as your default weapons. That already means that you personally have the power of a tank in any other game except that you also can fly at hundreds of meters per second.

Honestly IMO, there isn't anything that vehicles can do that cores or map design couldn't. I'm not saying I would oppose all vehicles ever, but I have yet to see a good reason to have them as they are conventionally known. To exist in Legions, they would have to be far different than what is seen in other games I would expect. It's not that I have any opposition to them directly, it's just that they are superfluous so far as I can tell and quite honestly, a lot of game developers add in vehicles not because the game is better for it but because players expect them. Look at T:A. Is it really better because of the Shrike, the grav cycle, and the Beowulf? I would say no.

Legions has a lot of core gameplay mechanics which IMO are spectacular and I have difficulty finding a niche for vehicles because Legionairres already occupy pretty much every niche. And I think this is part of the draw of the game. You aren't just infantry or a tank or a speeder bike or a helicopter or a fighter jet. You are all of those things in one at the same time.

And for the record, the views in this post reflect my own; I am not speaking for the team.

I will be doing a slower tribes like mod for 1.40
Legions is to fast right now for my taste..
If a modder simply started off by removing the unlimited skiing, worp cores, and slowing everything down a bit,
Legions 1.40 could basicly be made in to a tribes like mod, now that its got deployables in the mix.
Legions is a simple ripoff of Tribes2, and if the unlimited fast skiing and worp cores where removed it would be basicly a tribes game.

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since ur always making so many maps for us....do you think u can make a map and add vehicles in it so we can play it and see what a difference it would make in this game?

Simple rip off? There are similarities, but I wouldn't call it a rip off by any means. Especially not Tribes 2 specifically, Legions was created with the intention to be the...what was it? "Spiritual Successor."

It sounds like what you want is a Tribes game, go play Ascend if Legions is too fast for you. You're most likely the only person in the entire community (about 30 people?) who wants Legions to slow down. It's speed is one of it's defining features (in my opinion).

To simplify what I'm trying to say...if you don't like it, get out. This thread is getting off topic in my opinion, it's becoming the future of legions in Defender's dream world. I thought the purpose of this thread was to discuss the future of legions that we'll likely see, such as the engine swap.

TL;DR for all the people wanting vehicles: Legions isn't built for vehicles. It's too fast for that. We play at METERS PER SECOND. You do realize how fast that is? Just by walking at the velocity of 15 in our game, we travel at about 33 miles per hour. Change that into our extremely high speed skiing, and you have 180 working out to about 403 miles per hour. At 300, we reach 671 miles per hour. That's 90 miles per hour behind the land speed record. Vehicles aren't viable, that's that. Unless you want all-powerful vehicles zooming around and breaking the sound barrier all the time.

Mod the game the way you want, sure. I don't want to change the game, I don't want it to be slower, everybody has their own preferences. Ascend is slower than Legions, so go play that if you want a slower game. Just leave the rest of us out of it, most of us don't want to hear your complaining that the game is too fast for you. I don't care if you don't like it, just stop complaining. Go, mod the game, make your own server. If people play it that's their business. But there's absolutely no need to continue posting your ideas on this thread.
There's really no need for me to get into an argument over this, so I'm done. Do what you want, just don't get upset if nobody else likes it.

Seriously, let the guy have his opinion and his preferences. WTF? Why we can't just have a civil conversation I do not know.

@ Volt - Yeah I do hear you. I was not pushing for vehicles as such but I did want to point out that it is not, as was previously suggested, an impossible scenario - unlikely perhaps but not impossible. The very brief image I had in my mind was a map the size of a Battlefield map or something along those lines, with various bases for C'nH where vehicles could actually move faster than legionnaires with jetpacks and the advantage would also be that they could move many people to the same spot at once. It needn't slow the game down because the action would happen at the bases that are held. It would only be slower in the sense that it would mean pauses while you respawn and make your way over to a base. Once there though, you're back to regular Legions. Again, I am not saying this is likely or even desirable but it is not impossible or stupid as some people were implying. To be honest I like what you said about Legions requiring unique vehicles designed specifically for the game that cannot be found in any other game. If that ever happened it might be really groundbreaking.

I didn't tell you to leave the game because of our different opinions, I told you to leave the game because you said Legions was too fast for you. Meaning, you currently do not like (or prefer) the game in it's current state because it doesn't fit your "tastes."

And by the way, an argument is when two people discuss different opinions.

I didn't tell you to leave the game because of our different opinions, I told you to leave the game because you said Legions was too fast for you. Meaning, you currently do not like (or prefer) the game in it's current state because it doesn't fit your "tastes."

And by the way, an argument is when two people discuss different opinions.

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What karnage was trying to say was, stfu and stay on-topic instead of trying to prove how smart you are so this thread doesn't get locked.

From this point on, all my new maps, or updates to old maps, will be designed to run only on my new "Tribal Combat" mod, for 1.40.
I'm going to code the maps so they will only run on servers running my mod.
I will not be posting anything for my mod or maps here in this forum anymore..

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K, hopefully your server will hit more then 1 player per day. So you finally have someone else to play with.